lau nau: valohiukkanen

Recorded in 2011 on Kemiö Island, in Turku, Tampere and Stockholm, this is Lau Nau's long-awaited third LP, Valohiukkanen. An articulate work of delicate beauty featuring nine new Lau Nau originals and one cover version, it is adorned by an array of instrumentation, and enhanced by the integration of rhythm and percussion -- a thing rarely heard on Lau Nau albums. Although it's safe to say the mood is still firmly rooted in the shadowy side of life, we are occasionally taken to a disco -- yet that, too, sounds as if it may have been organized by Death. Tonally and texturally rich and immersive, the new record includes contributions from Pekko Käppi on jouhikko, Jaakko Tolvi on drums, Antti Tolvi on bass and alto clarinet, Kristian Holmgren on guitar, synths and percussion and Matti Bye on grand piano and celesta. The cover photographs were taken by renowned Finnish photographer Susanna Majuri, as part of her "Imaginary Homeland" series. Lau Nau is the musical alias and persona of Laura Naukkarinen. Her debut album, Kuutarha, won acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork and Dusted, with The Wire naming the LP amongst their top 50 albums of 2005, and citing her Philadelphia show of that year amongst "60 concerts that shook the world." Valohiukkanen continues the path laid down by her previous records, but if her psych-folk roots are still visible then the branches are further reaching, the music imbued with a timeless, cinematic breadth of vision. Retaining her penchant for a fragile, spectral other-ness, these 10 interrelated snapshots draw the listener towards Naukkarinen's idiosyncratic, finely-honed sound-world, unconsciously paralleling other luminaries such as Smog, Sigur Rós, or Linda Perhacs with her singular sense of purpose.

Lau Nau: Hämärän hevoset